Zelia Baugh
Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health


Zelia Baugh

Baugh is an experienced psychiatric administrative professional who previously served as the Administrator of Psychiatry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Center for Psychiatric Medicine. In that role, she is responsible for the Center’s overall administration as well as for the planning and implementation of the hospital’s psychiatric services strategic plan.

Prior to assuming her current responsibilities at UAB, she was Director of Psychiatry and Administrative Director of Psychiatry at Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham, the state’s largest hospital-based program. At Brookwood she worked to develop and implement the first hospital-based psychiatric rapid response team.

She was also Director of Dual Diagnosis and Primary Counselor at Brookwood and worked as a social worker at Birmingham’s St. Vincent’s Hospice Program, UAB Drug Free Program and UAB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Baugh was chairperson of the Alabama Hospital Association’s Psychiatric Constituency and in 2007 was appointed by the state commissioner of mental health to work on a state board task force to help resolve overcrowding in state hospitals. She is also a member of the Governor’s State Mental Health Board of Trustees.

She is a graduate of Birmingham Southern College majoring in Political Science and Sociology and received a Master of Social Work Degree from the University of Alabama.

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